try and catch me now
by fantasia of solace
Summary: Once upon a time, I was looking for you. Now it's your turn to find me. —Cheren/Bel


**author's note** yes, two stories in one day. found it lying around somewhere too and i thought i'd clear up my documents, so there.

**pairings** cheren/bel, touya/touko

**inspiration** Anna Yukihira's Bleed Me Dry. really obvious reference there.

**warning** shippings?

**disclaimer** don't own it

* * *

><p><strong>try and catch me now<strong>

_once upon a time, i was looking for you. now it's your turn to find me._

* * *

><p>They both receive their starter Pokémon on the same day, alongside another childhood friend called Touya.<p>

Out of her loving nature for 'cute' things, she takes the water-type Mijumaru immediately, while he chooses the fire-type Pokabu.

They are all presented with their Pokédexes too, entrusted with a quest to collect information about the vast variety of Pokémon residing in the region.

"We'll get to see each other a lot then!" she happily exclaims.

* * *

><p>The two of them see each other very often, especially at gyms, though after some time they meet less because she's not as competitive as him or Touya. She likes to take her time.<p>

Through Xtransciever calls, they promise to meet up at Hiun City's Café Sonata before moving on with their journeys.

At that time, she has just received her third gym badge while he's preparing for his fifth a couple of cities away, so he has to fly over to meet her.

He's terribly late that day.

"You're late," she scolds, pouting childishly.

"Sorry, I was caught up in training."

Laced with sincerity his words are, and that makes her feel strangely special.

* * *

><p>It's her birthday and he promises to meet her at Fukiyose City, where she has recently won her fifth badge.<p>

She's waiting inside the Pokémon Centre, waiting for him to arrive on this rainy day.

The rain pelts down from the heavens like a curtain of water, crashing onto the earth noisily and she keeps a watchful eye for any figure walking towards the centre in the gloom.

People come and go, some passers-by, some citizens of the city, some fellow trainers who come up to her and have a little chat with her while waiting for their Pokémon to heal, but none of them are him.

Disappointment begins to well up in her when he fails to turn up after two hours of waiting, and she can barely suppress the tears that are threatening to fall.

He never comes, simply sending a message saying that 'he's busy challenging the final gym leader'.

* * *

><p>She's never liked battling at such a fast pace but his message has left her infuriated, determination to catch up to him rising in her.<p>

Within a month, she's blazed her way through all the gyms, the Elite Four, and finally she is about to meet the champion.

"You don't seem like you're here for a battle," the champion remarks upon their meeting, raising an eyebrow.

That isn't him.

"He beat me but he declined the position," the champion says after some explanation. "I'm not sure where he is right now. He left a few days ago."

* * *

><p>She finally finds him in Kagome Town.<p>

"How is challenging a gym more important than my birthday?"

"What makes you think you're so special?"

That catches her completely off guard.

"Have you forgotten we're rivals?"

_Look at the horror he's become._

* * *

><p>She foregoes her Pokémon journey, having completed most of the regional Pokédex, leaving the rest to Touya and the new girl he has recruited to help out with the Pokédex information collation, Touko (who has also been given one of her own by the professor).<p>

"Bel, come out of the house already!" Touko yells, banging on the door. "Damn you, Bel!"

Isolated from society, she hardly comes out nowadays.

She has retired from battling, returning the completed Pokédex to the professor abruptly one day despite both father and daughter's protests that she keep it after they've recorded the information into their database.

She's sick of the memories of him.

* * *

><p>It's almost a year since she had started her quest.<p>

Now, everything has shattered into pieces.

Touya leaves a present on her doorstep, claiming that it's a special gift, separate from the one he he's given her at Touko's 'Let's-Celebrate-Without-A-Reason!' party.

It's from Cheren, she later finds out.

_Does he still care?_

* * *

><p>"We're still rivals, you know," he reminds.<p>

They're standing on Wonder Bridge, facing each other, the wind blowing from behind him and against her, almost making her feel like the villain, the antagonist.

"I don't have my Pokédex," she replies quietly, not minding if the words fade in the wind.

He throws the device to her and it lands at her feet with a resounding thud, her hands refusing to rise and catch it.

Her Daikenki brings it up to her, clamping it in between his hoofed paws, whinnying away noisily in the silence of the still, empty bridge.

She takes it cautiously, then carelessly drops it on the ground again, letting the metal clank loudly, not seeming to care if it will break and ruin her hard work (she apologises to the professor silently in her heart).

His eyes widen in horror and he glares at her dangerously, anger evident in his dark eyes.

"What do you think you're doing?"

"I'm going to fight you," she answers calmly, not feeling ruffled in the slightest way, a slightly demented smile on her face.

"Now you sound more like a rival."

He smirks and Lepardas emerged from the Pokéball readied in his hand.

* * *

><p>Now he's training to be a gym leader, preparing himself.<p>

She doesn't understand why he refuses to meet up with her on her birthday, yet he turns up early for Touya's birthday party.

_Is he more important than me now?_

But it doesn't matter, because it's a chance all the same.

"What is it?"

His voice's cold as ice, his eyes piercing through hers questioningly.

She can take back the action, pretend nothing's wrong and undo her mistake.

But she doesn't, and now she's at the edge of the cliff, him towering over her, blocking her only way to safety.

Behind her is the eternal pit of doom, where one will never be found once one fell in.

Hellfire burns in the underworld.

All it will take was one step to her death.

It's a flip of the coin.

Heads, he will move and she's safe again, safe from the danger of the free fall that is hanging above her like an ominous cloud.

Tails, he refuses to budge and she falls, disappearing from the face of this world for good.

Fifty-fifty.

She might win, she might lose.

Flip the coin.

She takes the chance and pours her soul out, but he crushes it with a guilty look.

"I—I never thought about my feelings for anyone," he says hastily. "Battling has been the only thing in my life, after all…that's the only thing I've ever really thought about…"

She swears she can hear her heart break.

* * *

><p>She meets him incidentally at the entrance of Spiral Mountain when the professor sends her to look for Touya and Touko, who has gone there to investigate some disturbing events but disappeared.<p>

"Let's fight," he declares.

She refuses to comply.

"We're rivals, we have to fight," he insists stubbornly, albeit a little childishly too.

"I value true friends more than rivals like you," she spits before brushing past him into the darkness of the mountain.

* * *

><p>Touya and Touko are still missing, last seen abducted by Natural on Reshiram and Zekrom, heading for some region outside of Isshu, unknown to most civilians here.<p>

That day is Touko's birthday and she's left praying and ringing the bell at the top of the Tower of Heaven.

She doesn't why she half-expects him to appear there too, praying for Touya and Touko's safety.

Does he regard them as friends anymore?

_Rivals, rivals, rivals._

She scowls at the thought of him.

* * *

><p>He returns with a gift, saying it was for their two-year-anniversary; two years since they had began their Pokémon journey.<p>

She slaps him immediately, eyes red from crying, burning with fury.

"How can you be so—so—"

She just can't bring herself to say the words, a numbing pain taking over her dull hazy mind, her words bouncing around inside her hollow skull.

So, being the coward she is, she runs.

* * *

><p>She's praying at the Tower of Heaven again on Touya's birthday, hoping that someone will hear of their whereabouts soon.<p>

She meets him outside the tower and he challenges her to a battle, because 'that's what rivals do', so he explains.

"Come on," he urges. "It wouldn't hurt to give me one battle, right?"

"You missed my birthday," it comes out of nowhere.

"We're rivals," he frowns. "My main obligation is always to keep challenging gyms and trainers of higher statuses. That's my only goal, you should know that, Bel." He's acting like the confession never happened, like he has zero knowledge of her feelings.

She hates him, hates him to the very core.

* * *

><p>"Happy birthday," he greets with a big smile. "I didn't really know what to get you as a present, so why don't we have a battle? I'll go easy on you, I promise. I'm not too hard to defeat with my new team, because—"<p>

He's now a famous gym leader of some city she could not be bothered to remember the name of, flaunting his new status.

_Battles, battles, battles._

She vaguely recalls that most of their meetings have been battles.

Sure, they are — were — rivals, but were battles honestly the only thing that have been running through that hellhole of a mind he has?

How simple his world is — battle, battle and battle your way through every fight to reach the top, claim the championship — or reject it for other pursuits dealing with battling again, since hardly anyone reaches the league.

She doesn't even _understand_ him anymore.

She slams the door in his face, eyes brimming with tears as she sinks against the wood, realisation sinking in.

She laughs bitterly at what she's become, all because of one person.

_Look how powerful you are now. Are you happy?_


End file.
